India to invest $44.9bn in smart grid infrastructure

WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- India's power sector is undergoing rapid transformation as the country faces steep electricity demand growth rates, plans to incorporate large-scale renewable resources, and a government eager to modernize the country. Smart grid infrastructure is seen by stakeholders as fundamental to this transformation, but until recently projects have been slow to materialize. This is now changing and with large-scale deployments beginning in 2017, smart grid infrastructure investment is projected to total $44.9 billion over the period 2017-2027, according to a new study published today by Northeast Group, LLC.

"India has always been seen as the largest potential smart grid market for international vendors," according to Ben Gardner, president of Northeast Group. "But until recently, this potential has been slow to materialize, despite extensive government plans and pressing concerns over the $23.2bn lost each year to electricity theft. We are now finally seeing utilities progress out of the pilot stages with multi-million endpoint smart meter projects recently announced."

India's recently established National Smart Grid Mission has charted out a deployment schedule for the next ten years, but several utilities are also moving forward with smart grid deployments independent of government plans. These include private franchisees that are deploying smart grid infrastructure to improve poor utility performance. India's smart grid market will vary widely across states, with each state possessing a unique industry structure and regulatory framework. The largest smart grid market opportunities exist in the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, West Bengal, and Kerala.

The competitive landscape of India's market is comprised of a number of well-established vendors from both the domestic and international spheres. Four local vendors—Secure Meters, Genus, HPL, and Larsen & Toubro (L&T)—hold the majority of market share in legacy metering and are poised to similarly impact the smart metering market. A number of leading global vendors such as ABB, CyanConnode, GE, Honeywell, Itron, Landis+Gyr, Schneider, Siemens, Silver Spring Networks, and others are already active on some level in the overall market.

Northeast Group's India Smart Grid: Market Forecast (2017-2027) study is 235-pages long and comes with an executive summary presentation in PowerPoint and a dataset in Excel. To order a copy of the study, please visit: www.northeast-group.com